Improvement in lightning-rods



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Leners Pawn No. 93,609, dem Angius: 1o, 1869.

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The Schedule referred to in these Lettera Patent and-imnking put o! lame.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that we, DAVID A. Foor and AVERY CHADWIGK, of Winona, in the county of Winona., and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and usefulvImprovement-s in' Lightning-Rods; and We do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of' this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, like letters indicating like parts wherever they occur.

To enable otheis skilled in the art to'construct and use our invention, we will proceed to describe it.

Our invention relates to lightning-rods, and consists in constructing them in a novel form and manner, by means-of suitable ldies and formels, and also in providing them with a. discl1arg`ingpoinh In the drawings- Figurel is a perspective view oi' a portion of the upper and'lower ends of our rod;

Figure 2 is an end View of the formers or plates for shaping the stnps of copper out of which the rod is to be made, in the commencement of the operation;

Figures 3 and`4 are plan views of the'interior faces of these formers;

. Figure 5 is an end view of the die through which the rod is to be drawn after leaving the formers; and Figure 6 is a cross-section of iig. 5, on the line x-x, also showing the copper strip in process' of' being formed. r

.In constructing our lightning-rod, we first make a former, A, consisting of two plates, B and C, as clearly shown in iigs. 2, 3, and 4.

The upper plate, B, is provided with a tongue, a., which has in it a. semicircnlar groove, b, as shown in f igs. 2 and 3, and the tongue, vand the groove in it, are both-shaped as s how'n in the same gures, the former decreasing in height, or tapering from its front to its rear end, and -the latter continuing oi' uniform size throughout.

The under plate, C, is provided with a groove, e, shaped on its front end as shown in fig. 2, so as to're` ceive the tongue a, and then expanding gradually into,

a Hat shallow groove toward its rear' end, as'shown in iig. 4, and so 'that when the plates B and C are placed together, the upper edge of the grooveb will be parallel with the bottom of the groove e.

We also make a die, D, having a star-shaped opening,-f, of any desired size, and with any desired num-- ber of points, as clearly shown in fig. 5, and the opening is a little larger at one end than at the other, as

shown in tig. 6.

Having thus constructed the formers, andthedie of the size desired, we take strips of copper, of suitable width and length to form sections of our rod, and form them up one after the other in these tools.

In doing this, we take a round metallic rod, g, of the same diameter, or nearly so, of the groove b, in the former A, and place it therein, and place the copper strip h, out of which a section of the rod is to be formed, in the groove o, -and press the plates B and O of the fonner A together, when the end of the strip will assume the form shown in fig. 2. .We then draw the rod g, with the strip h, far enough through the former A to enter the opening in the die D, suitably placed for that purpose, and then draw them on through the former A and the die D by any suitablemechanism for the purpose, when the copper strip will' be formed up with 'itsedges closely and neatly lapped, and with its outline 'similar in shape to the opening in the die, as shown in iig. 6.

Having thus made a number of these sections, we rivet them together, to form a rod, E, partly shown in iig. 1, of the required length.

This' rod we provide with "a receiving-point, F, or with -any number of the salme, madeof solid copper,- silver-plated, and platina-tipped.

We also provide it witha discharging-point, G, made of solid copper, and silver-plated.

In this way we get a star-shaped lightning-rod of great strength and beauty, furnishing in a small compass a great extent of surface for the electric current, with the most approved receiving-points, and a novel ground or dscharge-poinnas well as a rod that can be readily adapted to the contour of buildings to which it may be attached.

Having thus described our invention,

l. Avhollow, star-shaped copper lightning-rod, provided at its lower end witha solid copper dischargingpoint, platedwith silver, and its upper end with one or more receiving-points, the whole constructed and arranged substantially as herein described.

2. The combination of the former A, die D, and metallic rod g, constructed substantially as herein described, for the' purpose of drawing star or similarshaped lightningrods, as set forth.

' DAVID A. FOOT.'

AVERY .OHADWICK.

Witnesses:

GEORGE P. WILsoN, THoMAs F. DONNER. 

